The 6-2 Texas Longhorns barely escaped Lawrence, Kansas on Saturday, clawing out a 21-17 win over the Kansas Jayhawks. In this game, the Texas offense sputtered, with starting quarterback David Ash playing the worst game of his career in that role and ceding snaps to Case McCoy in the fourth quarter.

McCoy led Texas to a victory, but the Longhorns looked miserable as a whole in the process. Surprisingly, the Texas defense played well in the second-half against a one-dimensional Kansas offense, which, on paper, should have been relatively easy to stop.

As we know of this Texas team, however, no one is easy to stop. It can be argued this is the worst defensive unit in the history of Texas Longhorns football.

Given this, it’s my position all the hand-wringing over the struggles of the Texas defense should come to an end, and coaches and players alike should have a singular focus going forward:

Offense.

We’re now in Week 10 of the 2012 season. A little over a month of football remains. With the deep-seated issues ingrained into the core of this Texas defensive unit, there is no quick-fix, no temporary patch that will lead to a permanent solution.

No matter what Manny Diaz tries to do to “fire up the troops”, no matter how many skulls Alex Okafor and Kenny Vaccaro try to crack in practice, there just isn’t enough time to make a difference.

Given this, it’s time for Bryan Harsin, Major Applewhite, and the Texas offense to pull out all the stops– assuming any are left to be pulled– and focus on being as aggressive as possible with the ball. I’m no X’s and O’s guy, but I know enough about match-ups to realize Texas has some personnel not being used to their greatest advantage.

For example, if this a speed-laden team, where is the play-calling that utilizes speed? Why was not one jet or sprint sweep called until Marquis Goodwin’s fourth-quarter touchdown?

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Whatever hesitation was left to be creative and take risks should be abandoned wholesale if Texas wants to see any modicum of success down the stretch.

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Greg Davis-style conservatism be damned.

This team has not, and will not stop anybody going forward.

It just will not happen. So why make it a focus of concern?

With everyone singularly focused on the offense, and given the opportunity to make plays, this Texas team can score with the best of them.

Why continue to stress over a defense that is too damaged to be repaired?

Lost causes are usually shunned for those which can be directly affected– both in sports and in “life”– and this should be no exception.

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